JEDDAH, Saudi Arabia — Ten Saudi Arabian police, armed with wooden clubs, raided a private Christian worship meeting in the coastal city of Jeddah June 9, arresting four east African citizens leading the service. At press time, the two Ethiopian and two Eritrean Christians remained in the city’s deportation jail.
More than 100 Eritreans, Ethiopians and Filipinos were gathered for worship in a home in Jeddah’s Al-Rowaise district at 11 a.m. Startled worshipers brought chairs to seat the policemen, who sat and waited with clubs in hand for the three-hour worship service to conclude before arresting Ethiopians Mekbeb Telahun and Masai Wendewesen and Eritreans Fekre Gebremedhin and Dawit Uqbay. One Christian who spoke with them by telephone reported they were “doing fine, with okay morale.” But he said he did not know how they were being treated.
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